


horrorshow*

by darkdropout



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-09
Updated: 2011-07-09
Packaged: 2017-11-10 04:37:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/462272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkdropout/pseuds/darkdropout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s just the five of them now and they’ve got to keep running.</p>
            </blockquote>





	horrorshow*

**Author's Note:**

> Title borrowed from Anthony Burgess' Novel 'A Clockwork Orange.' In the novel's fictional slang, "horrorshow" is from the Russian word 'Khorosho' meaning well or good.

 

They’re running, running as fast as they can, but already it’s not enough, not fast enough.

Aiba is struggling to keep up, his breaths heavy and crackling in a way that is both deafening and defeating.

They won’t make it.

Nino throws out a hand behind him, the hand that’s not latched on to Ohno’s wrist in front of him. Aiba’s fingers tangle in his and Nino pulls him forward with the full force of his weight, his shoulder cracking dangerously with the effort.

Up ahead, Sho slips, feet scrambling for a moment as the rubble scatters beneath him. But Jun is right behind him and he reaches out with both hands, steadying Sho and at the same time pushing him forward, forward faster.

Because everyone else is dead.

Everyone.

Dead or dying.

It’s just the five of them now and they’ve got to keep running.

Nino feels Ohno lift his hand, the hand that Nino won’t let go of, can’t let go of, to his face. Ohno rubs roughly at his eyes with the heel of his palm and Nino’s fingers graze his cheek, feel the wetness of tears there.

Ohno is crying.

But there’s no time for crying. There’s no time at all. Nino doesn’t remember the last time he cried, but it won’t become today. It can’t be today, even after everything that’s happened in the past few hours.

They keep running.

 

The stench of death is thick in the air as they huddle together in the dark. They’ve gotten far enough that they can’t hear the screams anymore, but the air is full of smoke and ash, the sky, somewhere far-off in the distance now, full of flames.

Aiba, Jun, Ohno, Sho – they’re all sobbing, quietly. Nino waits for his own tears to come, but they don’t and he's glad.

His mind is racing, alive with adrenaline and panicked as his fingers slip in their grip on Ohno’s wrist, wet with sweat and Ohno’s tears. Desperate to hold on, his nails dig into Ohno’s skin.

Ohno just keeps crying. Nino can’t let go.

 

Aiba can’t keep up with them. Not after three days of running.

“You go ahead,” he tells them, eyes swollen but determined.

“No.” Jun’s the first to say it, but it echoes one, two, three times around him.

Ohno’s wrist is red and rough where Nino’s fingers still press against it, where his nails scratch against it in the middle of the night as Nino lies awake and listens to the symphony of grief around him.

They aren’t singers anymore, not in this world, but even so their tears come in perfect harmony.

“You have to,” Aiba says. “I’m slowing you down and I – I _won’t_ be the reason you die.”

Nino’s fist connects with Sho’s jaw.

It takes him a minute to sort out what’s happened, but then Ohno’s holding him tight and Sho’s on the ground and Jun is yelling –

But Aiba is smiling.

“You tried to hit me,” he says to Nino and Nino can only half hear him through the rushing in his ears. Nino had forgotten what Aiba’s smile looked like and the realization thrums out the ache in his still clenched fist.

“I hit Sho-chan,” Nino tells him.

Ohno’s arms are still tight around him, making his vision quake in and out of focus.

“You’ve never hit me before,” Aiba says.

Nino nods. His head, his whole body, feels too heavy, and the world around him feels too unreal as Ohno slides fingers around Nino's wrist, gentle and warm.

“And if you ever leave me,” Nino says. “I will hit you even harder.”

Aiba laughs. It's a strange, strangled sound, one that was so familiar, so constant, a few days ago - a lifetime ago.

“If you leave,” Sho says to Aiba, standing shakily and cradling his jaw while Jun hovers at his elbow, urging him to sit back down. “If you leave, I won’t take Nino's punch for you again.”

There’s no time for laughing, Nino thinks. It’s just the five of them now and they have to keep running.

But he laughs anyway.

They'll make it, if it's them.  


 


End file.
